Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA)

The Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA) is available free as a series of downloadable documents (below). It can also be purchased for £60 (cheques made payable to Hull City Council) from -

Planning policyKingston HouseBond StreetHullHU1 3ER

The SFRA is also available to view as a hard copy at Kingston House.

Hull City Council commissioned the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment in May 2007 and work was completed in November 2007. The scope of the work was agreed with the Environment Agency, not only to ensure it met the requirements of PPS25 (Planning for Flood Risk) but also to continue the development of good joint working arrangements. The SFRA provides a greater understanding of the flood risks from the River Hull, Humber Estuary, drains, groundwater and rainfall to the city.

After the floods of June 2007, additional work was commissioned in August to make sure there was a thorough understanding of how the drainage infrastructure would react during certain specific periods/amounts of rain. All the major development programmes within the city will be influenced by the findings of the SFRA. In particular, Building Schools for the Future, Citybuild and Gateway have been involved in the production of the SFRA and are fully aware of the need to ensure new development is protected against flooding.

The SFRA is crucial for the long term development of the city. 95 per cent of Hull lies in the flood plains of the River Hull and/or River Humber. This assessment helps us choose appropriate locations for new development, which should be designed to protect against the risk of flooding. It also provides certainty to developers and investors as the city continues to grow.

The SFRA builds on the approach we agreed with the Environment Agency in 2003, where floor levels for new developments were raised in specific areas across the city to protect against flooding. No residential properties given permission since 2003, with raised floor levels, were flooded in June 2007.

Figure 10.3 - Flood zones with surface water risk and strategic development areas

SFRAThe reasoning behind defining different areas of risk is outlined within this document along with 22 planning recommendations included within chapter 10. The SFRA was produced in close collaboration with Yorkshire Water, the Environment Agency and East Riding of Yorkshire Council, to enable a thorough and detailed understanding of flood risk to be presented, along with some recommendations to minimise these risks.

The findings of the SFRA will be crucial for developers and investors submitting planning applications within the city who will need to be guided by the maps, recommendations and appendices to consider how to address the risk of flooding within their development proposals.

Fig 8.2This map, along with the table in Appendix D, enables developers to determine what level of flood protection is required within certain locations across the city. The appropriate protection measures in some areas involve raising floor levels by 300mm or 600mm, or by undertaking a site specific flood risk assessment to determine the necessary specific measures.

The area of functional flood plain (hatched red on the plan) has been identified as being required to store water in times of flood or heavy rainfall. Also, other areas of greenspace will have a key role to play in managing flood risk during exceptional flood events. Due to the role these areas serve, in terms of managing the risk of flooding, it is considered (where appropriate) that built development should be resisted in these areas.

Fig 10.3Figure 10.3 assesses all the risks of flooding across the city. It combines these risks to produce a map showing six categories of risk from all sources of flooding. This map also shows the boundaries of the Area Action Plans across the city and will be used by us and developers to undertake the sequential and exception tests (for guidance on these tests please see SFRA recommendations 15 and 18 and appendix C).

Standing advice on development and flood risk within Hull

We, with the Environment Agency, have prepared a joint document to assist in the interpretation of the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment for individual developments. This formed part of the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (Appendix D) (please see the above PDF 'Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA)') but has been revised in light of practice and experience.

The most up to date standing advice can be found in the following document, which also includes further clarifying information and definitions -

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